Pre-War Cards

The few athletes found in this 1930s set are the most important cards

Few collectors have heard of the 1937 Donut Corporation of America Thrilling Moments set. Categorized as D146 in the American Card Catalog, these cards were printed on packages of donuts, meaning most were probably discarded.

A total of 72 cards are in the set and it’s almost entirely a non-sports issue. But the set has a handful of sports cards and those are the keys to the set.

Leading the way in the set is a card of Babe Ruth. Ruth is almost always the most expensive set in which he appears and that’s the case here. Ruth’s card, like the others, is very rare. It starts around $500, even in low-grade condition. Ones in better condition can top $1,000. The front calls him the, “Beloved Baseball Idol of all Boys.” Somewhat lost in the idea that this is a very tough card is that it is not even one that was issued during Ruth’s playing days. Despite that, it still commands quite a bit of money.

Ruth, like others, is not named in the front (or on the back as those were all blank). However, he is clearly identified by the image, which is the same Ruth picture used on several other cards as I outlined in this article.

Ruth’s card is the most valuable one in the set but several others are notable, too.

In terms of desirability, the two football cards featuring Red Grange and Knute Rockne are both sought after. Their cards are always popular not only because they were notable figures but, with American football still gaining traction in the country, they simply do not have many pre-war cards.

The cards of Grange and Rockne are not on the level of Ruth but are still incredibly tough to find and better ones can sell for a few hundred dollars. Finding either, even in bad condition, at under $100 would probably be difficult.

Boxers Jack Dempsey and John Sullivan are right there in terms of interest, too. The same can be said of tennis star Bill Tilden and golfer Bobby Jones. All four athletes are Hall of Famers and will cost more than the others in the set.

The set has plenty of notable non-sports personalities with plenty of big names. Among them are famous people such as Buffalo Bill, Amelia Earhart, Ben Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and many others. But while those are some big name cards, they simply don’t command the kind of money that the top athletes do. Commons in the set start around $10-$20 and even the bigger name non-sports personalities start at about $25 or so when you can find them in low-grade condition.

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